building design – AECCafe Voicehttps://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice
Just another AEC Blogs siteFri, 10 Aug 2018 22:46:08 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.644841642AECCafe BIM Interoperability Questionnairehttps://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/08/10/aeccafe-bim-interoperability-questionnaire/
https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/08/10/aeccafe-bim-interoperability-questionnaire/#respondFri, 10 Aug 2018 22:46:08 +0000https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/?p=2831The built environment is increasingly more digitized, relying heavily on large building models to hold all aspects of a building project. Thus, the need for BIM Interoperability is greater as the necessity grows for stakeholders to be able to access the information inside these complex models.

BIM Interoperability is a topic that can easily be misunderstood, and yet holds the AEC industry in thrall as vendors scramble to offer this very necessary piece of communication to their customers’ need to understand their data.

Standards organizations have come forward to suggest that they have the answer to interoperability in the BIM world. But currently what most vendors are able to achieve is perhaps an increase in interoperability. Does anyone offer total interoperability?

Wikipedia has a definition listed as a sub-chapter on software interoperability that reads as follows:

With respect to software, the term interoperability is used to describe the capability of different programs to exchange data via a common set of exchange formats, to read and write the same file formats, and to use the same protocols.

Vendors and industry standards organizations may have different definitions of BIM interoperability, while putting forward the effort to define and offer various “levels” of interoperability in their products.

Singapore Land Authority

For AEC firms, it is very common to use multiple software products within the same organization, as well as outside the organization. All these products throughout the design process need to be able to communicate with one another.

The BIM Interoperability questionnaire will lead to an article featured on AECCafe Voice Blog on AECCafe. The following are some important questions for vendors and those who are involved in BIM projects:

What common data format does your company use to exchange data?

What do you think about the ability for BIM tools to not only transfer data, but to also transfer meaning?

How would you describe the difference between interoperability and compatibility?

What are common challenges in achieving BIM interoperability as opposed to other software interoperability challenges? Please describe.

How is it possible to maintain interoperability throughout the project lifecycle?

What is your view and description of the current BIM levels: BIM Levels 1-3?

What are the differences in your understanding, between OpenBIM and OPEN BIM?

What is your experience with IFC implementations?

What are the advantages as well as disadvantages of BIM interoperability?

Please return this completed Questionnaire to susan.smith@ibsystems.com by August 20th, 2018. Please include any supporting materials, such as case studies, screenshots, charts, etc. (No logos or headshots please).

Look forward to working with you.

Best regards,

Susan Smith
Editor
AECCafe
505-501-2478

]]>https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/08/10/aeccafe-bim-interoperability-questionnaire/feed/02831AIA+2030 Online Series Seeks to Inspire Architects to Meet the Architecture 2030 Challengehttps://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/08/01/aia2030-online-series-seeks-to-inspire-architects-to-meet-the-architecture-2030-challenge/
https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/08/01/aia2030-online-series-seeks-to-inspire-architects-to-meet-the-architecture-2030-challenge/#respondWed, 01 Aug 2018 13:08:09 +0000https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/?p=2793The Architecture 2030 Challenge, adopted by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), offers a path to reducing the building sector’s negative impacts and reaches for carbon neutral design as standard practice by the year 2030. The building sector is the single largest consumer of energy and producer of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Designed to provide continuing education credits, the AIA+2030 Online Seriesprovides courses in high performance design, building a comprehensive understanding with each class in the series. The series will teach and inspire architects to meet the 2030 Challenge through design strategies, efficient technologies and systems, and the application of renewable energy resources.

Lindsay Rasmussen, assoc. AIA, program consultant for Architecture 2030, responded to some questions from AECCafe Voice about the AIA+2030 Online Series.

Who are the speakers invited to be part of the class?

The ten courses in the AIA+2030 Online Series are taught by over 40 leading experts within architecture, engineering, and allied fields.

Is the course designed as a MOOC or as a scheduled course?

The AIA+2030 Online Series consists of ten one-hour courses sponsored by Autodesk and delivered through AIAU, the AIA’s online education portal. The courses are available for continuing education credits and can be started at any time. Each course in the AIA+2030 Online Series explores a different component of high performance design, from setting energy targets to passive design strategies and commissioning. However, the series was designed so each course builds upon the previous course to create a more comprehensive understanding of high performance design. For a limited time, viewers can save 25% when they purchase the full 10-course series. New 2030 Commitment signatories receive the first course free, and group viewing discounts are available.

The series is based on the highly successful AIA+2030 Professional Series, developed by AIA Seattle in partnership with Architecture 2030, that has been offered to over 30% of AIA’s membership in 25 markets throughout the United States, which includes 10, four-hour sessions offered over a one-year period and is marketed to and attended by mid-executive level architectural and engineering professionals.

What percentage of videos are you using in the different classes?

The AIA+2030 Online Series is not currently viewed “in-class,” though Architecture 2030 is collaborating with some AIA Chapters to offer a “hybrid” version that is both online and in-class. Rather, the 10-course video series consists of recorded interviews with experts, supplemented by supporting technical graphics, resources, and case studies. Each course is broken up into multiple sections. While each course builds upon the previous courses (for example, course 3 builds upon what was taught in courses 1 and 2), the content for each is new and includes different expert speakers with strong backgrounds in each course’s particular focus areas.

Is it a certificate program and how does that work?

Anyone completing all courses in the AIA+2030 Online Series will receive a certificate from AIA acknowledging their completion of the program, in addition to the individual course certificates awarded upon completion of each course.

Who will benefit from taking this class?

Architects, designers, and engineers are at a pivotal point in our profession. Our designs today will have a direct impact on our climate goals, and whether or not climate change is manageable or catastrophic. We need to design a carbon-neutral built environment, and that starts with empowering design professionals. The AIA+2030 Online Series was created to help designers to achieve the 2030 Challenge targets and to create a carbon neutral built environment. The Series will be educational and useful for any design professional interested in learning comprehensive and specific strategies for creating high performance buildings.

What are the primary goals of the course?

The purpose of the AIA+2030 Online Series is to provide viewers with the insights and tools they need to design high performance buildings that meet the 2030 Challenge targets. Each course explores a specific component of high performance design, and upon completion of the whole series designers should be equipped to meet 2030 Challenge, or zero-net carbon, targets on every project in their portfolio.

What benefits do viewers gain from completing the online series?

The building sector is the single largest consumer of energy and producer of greenhouse gas emissions globally. The series will teach and inspire architects to meet the 2030 Challenge through design strategies, efficient technologies and systems, and the application of renewable energy resources. Completing the online series will give viewers a broad and concrete introduction to high-performance design strategies, from climate-responsive design to the integration of passive and active systems and renewable energy.

Matt Kochanowski, product manager, professional imaging, Epson America, Inc. talked with AECCafe Voice about the latest new wireless printers in the SureColor T-Series with two more models coming out later this year.

What are the current SureColor T-Series products?

Our SureColor T-Series is made up of the T3270, T5270, T7270 which are all five color wide format inkjet machines. The only difference with the top level products is the maximum width you can print: 24, 36 and 44” printers. Then what we also have is the T5270D and T7270D. These are the same as the single models except these are of a dual configuration. You can either have two different types of rolls in the machine or you can have two different sizes of rolls entered into the machine. Or you can switch back and forth between the two automatically.

In the past three or four years, we’ve compacted all the design capability into a small 24” printer. I’m really impressed with what our engineers were able to do. These are for AEC or the GIS mapping community, either for at home or small office use, generating low volume blueprints, drawings, maps. We’re also targeting the education and corporate space, for printing in school posters for education, or for corporate to take any documents and enlarge them, or for printing posters for events that are being planned and promoted within the office.

What are the core technologies?

One of the biggest core pieces of technology in the printer is the precision PrecisionCore® MicroTFP® printhead technology. This is the same sort of chip technology that goes into business inkjet printers but also into our industrial presses too.

One of the main benefits of this head technology, as opposed to previous head technology, is it’s a bigger print chip. What that’s going to translate to is a faster print job.

We also have UltraChrome XD2 pigment ink. This is one of the first wide format printers that will have a 4.3” LCD color touchscreen.

We worked with one of the leading industrial desiners to design this machine. They specialize in a lot of automotive design and we wanted that same sort of feel, as people feel when seeing a sportscar. We wanted them to feel that way with this printer.

We wanted a design that’s attractive and appealing to customers, that they can also incorporate different things into their design along with this printer. Not only that, we wanted to make this a very functional design as well. You can see that it has a flat top surface. Even that 4.3” touchscreen interface can fold completely flat too. After customers print something off the machine, they can take it off the printer, or take their laptop and put it on top of the machine and use that as a workspace. If we’re going to be taking up space on people’s desks and we’re going to have a big printer up there, we want to give some functionality of that space back to them.

We made the printer with a small footprint, because it was going to go on people’s desks, and they may not have space for a wide footprint printer. Not only is the printer a small 36” or 24” design, it has an easy set up process. From pulling it out of the box, putting it onto the Desktop and initializing it with the aim of getting it ready to print, the whole process should take less than 30 minutes.

This is also a very easy printer to ship to customers. We knew a lot of them were just going to go on Amazon or anyone of our online resellers. We didn’t want to make shipping an issue for them. With the 3170 24” printer, because of the small size, we can actually ship this printer via standard FedEx or UPS Ground.

Customers don’t need to worry about special shipping instructions.

We took our base design and we migrated it over to a wi-fi format printer. It has easy menu navigation, customers can check supply levels easily, and can also update firmmare directly from the control panel.

Another feature we added in is integrated wi-fi, from a Mac or PC, with no need for dedicated cable. You only need a power cable, so you can put it anywhere there’s a power outlet.

Having an integrated Direct Wi-Fi connection in the office is great. Many people have their documentation on their smart devices, whether phone, iPad or other tablet, so they can print directly from these devices to the printer, with the wi-fi. The integrated direct wifi connection means they can connect directly to the T-Series printers. They don’t need to go through a router and they don’t need any special apps or software, and they can enlarge or send any kinds of files directly to the printer.

The same kind of high quality that Epson is known for in its photo printers is resident in the TSeries. Print resolutions go up to 400dpi for very accurate and very precise line details.

For many years, customers have wanted better Nozzle Verification Technology. When we used to run these nozzle checks, ink would fire out of the printhead. Now we can track how close the ink is to the printhead. The film in the printhead is vibrating as it is pushing ink out of the printhead and you can check any abnormality the film is having. It can adjust if something is wrong. If it notices that nozzles aren’t firing properly and detects any abnormality that the film is having, it can automatically move those nozzles over to nearby nozzles.

What about archival integrity of inks?

The printers have 4-color inkset with high capacity. One of the main benefits of our technology is it is pigment ink based. Customers with high quality photos need to be sure prints are lasting, so they need very archival inks. In the mapping community, people need to make sure maps are not degrading over time. They are also extremely water, and scratch, or smudge resistant. On the job site, our inks extremely durable.

With very versatile media handling, the T3170 takes rolls up to 24” wide. With an autosheet feeder, you can have a roll and sheets in the autosheet feeder load at the same time.

The T3470 and T5470 are 20-30% faster and larger than desktop models. They are fastest for printing blueprints and maps and have larger ink cartrdiges, lowering the cost of per millletter and the need to replace ink cartridges so often. They are designed for the AEC, GIS, Education industries also. Yet instead of having desktop printers on or nearby, these will be shared by several people in a workgroup.

In summary, the Epson SureColor T3170 24-inch desktop printer and the SureColor T5170 36-inch floor-standing printer deliver a range of features designed to help industry professionals increase productivity, including:

Versatile Media Handling – Accommodates rolls up to 24- and 36-inches and sheets up to 11″ x 17″ through the Auto Sheet Feeder

Precise/Sharp Detail – Print blueprints, line drawings, posters, and more up to 2400 dpi

Easy Set Up – Get up and running out of the box in as quickly as 30 minutes

Support and Availability

The SureColor T3170 (MSRP $995) and T5170 (MSRP $2,395) will be available in September 2018 and offer a standard Epson PreferredSM Limited Warranty.

]]>https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/07/26/epson-announces-new-wireless-surecolor-t-series-desktop-printers/feed/02825Cosential Gets Funding from JMI Equity to Accelerate Product Innovationhttps://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/07/20/cosential-gets-funding-from-jmi-equity-to-accelerate-product-innovation/
https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/07/20/cosential-gets-funding-from-jmi-equity-to-accelerate-product-innovation/#respondFri, 20 Jul 2018 15:25:14 +0000https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/?p=2815Cosential is a CRM market leader and proposal automation software for Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) firms, that recently closed a deal of a $34 million strategic growth investment from JMI Equity, a growth equity firm focused on investing in leading software companies. The funding will be used to accelerate market development, expand corporate infrastructure and continue fueling the company’s rapid pace of product innovation. Dan Cornish, CEO of the company Cosential, spoke with AECCafe recently about Cosential and its role in the AEC industry.

Cornish began Cosential in 1999, as a way to help large AEC firms win large projects. What he realized was that a crucial problem people had was pulling data together.

How did you start out building Cosential?

I started building online systems early on and then started building Cosential and over the years I sort of bootstrapped it from there to get to this point today, where we have the biggest market share for CRM in the AEC industry. So many people want so much from our tool, it made sense for me to bring on a financial partner who would help me grow and realize the financial vision I’ve had all these years, because I want to help customers have better businesses. It’s such an old-fashioned industry and people have been managing with spreadsheets. The tools that are out there are either very old, not industry specific or they require an enormous amount of customization that they never get quite right and so we build a purpose-built tool for this industry and it solves a lot of problems.

Our goal is to help our customers win more business and by using our tools they become more efficient, more effective, and they have a big ROI because they win more deals because their whole marketing and sales process is so much more efficient. I built an online system that’s available in network and mobile that integrates with all the major ERP systems, so it integrates with Deltek, Viewpoint, Oracle, CMiC, etc. and all the project management systems like ProCore and some other ones, as well as HR systems and then internal systems. It pulls all the data together in a way that allows our customers to quickly answer questions and RFPs, quickly put together proposals and track them with proper metrics, and all the other kinds of analytics, and see wat’s effective and not effective.

Since we’ve been doing it for twenty years, and we’ve pretty much figured it out. We’re all experts in the AEC industry. We’ve been building this thing for about 20 years, so our product is complete, very powerful and easy to use, and that’s why people buy it, and we provide all this great power.

Do people want Cosential in addition to a BIM or CAD system?

If you think of three major sources of record, or three silos of data, there are the following:

Sales data. What projects are we chasing, what are or estimates, bids, quotes? How accurately does that work?

2. Financial data, which is important for putting together proposals, like how many jobs have we done, change order over x amount, then project management systems, and CAD systems.

3. Delivery, which is CAD.

You need all three silos of data to run your business. Up until recently, people have just been running the business side on spreadsheets. If they automated CAD early on, they had to go out and get an accounting system, but now what ends up happening is to effectively sell, you have to integrate the CAD, the project management, the financial with the sales process and this is where true automation comes in.

So, it puts all that stuff together. If you’re 100-person firm, this becomes an enormous lever in terms of how to manage information. Everyone in AEC is in the information business. All they do is sell people’s experience with different projects.

Cosential helps them organize it.

What makes it specific to the AEC industry? Do you do other industries as well or just AEC?

No, just AEC.

Other software companies have, over the years, addressed financial and sales outside the project management and CAD piece, and then stuck it together with those things.

Most of the systems people have in terms of CRM systems are spreadsheets. Most had CRM systems. They’re not project based; they tacked it together so that’s why they end up replacing a lot of traditional CRM platforms. Again, it’s a caked together system.

What are you giving customers exactly? Getting people to transition their brains from spreadsheets, to something else, is probably kind of challenging.

Cosential has a spreadsheet view that works just like a spreadsheet. It’s part of an enterprise database. That’s one reason people use us because there is no learning curve.

They use it and all the intelligence is in the software.

Can it draw information from the other silos?

Yes. Also, the system is set up for customers It’s ready and they don’t have to figure out how to set up a system, it’s out of the box.

It’s incorporating materials, data, shipment data, etc.?

Yes, all of that.

So, in terms of coordinating with a BIM, it doesn’t matter what software, Cosential can still work with it?

Yeah, and a lot of information in the BIM model is not important for sales. The project type, and who worked on the projects and where they are, and what they experience is. We also have an image library as part of our system and our system can publish this, design in Word and combine all the data from all these data sources, plus all the photography into a beautiful high-quality proposal in design. We automate that whole process. For the proposal pieces we save up to 75% of the time it takes to build a proposal because our customers get all their time back and increases their hit rate, because they can focus on what’s really important. A lot of our customers say we’ve increased their hit rate up to 30%, so it’s an enormous advantage to be able to automate that piece of their business as well.

Each one of these existing software companies have some piece they provide, and they’re supposed to be integrated together. This integration is happening incrementally.

We’ve been integrating for 20 years. They’re integrating within their companies. We actually integrate better with Deltek better than they integrate with them.

Companies go out and buy companies and just slam the products together.

We learned that just saying that one field integrates with another isn’t being a smart integration. We actually are on our sixth generation of our integration tools. We really learned that mapping one field to another isn’t enough. Sometimes you want to pull data from the financial system, but then you want the marketers to look at the data as they want to see it, but still not go back and update the financial system. Or you plot data that you want to see another way. The reason – another competitive advantage we have: we have figured out how to really integrate. We actually know what we’re doing.

In terms of bringing this into an existing organization, do you have to set it up?

It’s ready to go and then we provide implementation services to help customers implement. That can be anything from a simple phone call anywhere to we’ll help you migrate the data, organize your data, or even advise you to modify your data so it becomes more meaningful.

We’ll train you. A lot of people haven’t learned how to use a system like this, but we’ll train you and our customers say they can’t imagine living without us.

After people started doing CAD they realized they couldn’t live without it.

Is your cloud a proprietary private cloud, and what about security?

It’s super secure, we’ve had the largest companies in the world using our system. Since this is in our DNA, we’ve done all the secure things we have to do.

Do you have to customize the system for different companies?

No, our customers can configure it themselves.

Price point?

Three different price points:

$95 per user per month, full user; $55 per user sales and a business development; for casual users $25 per user per month.

The addition of Clash Detection functionality to 3D Repo’s 3D Diff solution fits with its overall mission as a web based, real-time change detection software for 3D construction models used in Building Information Modelling (BIM).

The enhanced 3D Diff solution with Clash Detection automatically identifies and highlights intersections, and therefore potential conflicts, between different types of models. Because there are so many stakeholders and teams involved in the construction process, from the original conceptual plans through to structural, environmental, mechanical, electrical and plumbing, etc. there is the potential for many individual models converging that can contain many 3D files with underlying metadata. It’s easy to see how clashes can occur before the design review process in such an environment.

According to company materials, cloud-based 3D Clash Detection is a fast and reliable way to compare and contrast 3D models, from different disciplines, regardless of the file format or the software used to create them. A patent pending industry first, the 3D Diff with Clash Detection operates on models of any type, in real time via an encrypted web browser. The 3D Repo solution also allows users to share visualizations, highlighting clashes, with project partners and stakeholders irrespective of location or time-zone. These can then be exported as BCF (Building Collaboration Format) files that can be shared with authoring tools. Unlike existing solutions in the marketplace that highlight whole objects that clash, the 3D Repo solution detects and visualizes exact intersection points wherever they appear.

Andrew Norrie, 3D Repo’s Commercial director, spoke with AECCafe Voice about some of the most important features of 3D Diff and how it can identify and eliminate some potential problems in the construction process.

Prior to this announcement, what were the features of 3D Diff?

3D Diff allows users to compare revisions of the same model to see what has changed over time. 3D Diff will visually highlight areas that have been deleted (red) and areas which have been added (green). This technology runs completely in the web browsers and is independent of any file types and so allows for cross format comparison.

How does the addition of clash detection expand 3D Diff?

The Clash feature now allows users to compare models from different disciplines to highlight where they collide and could cause a potential construction problem on site and lead to costly re-work.

Since the product appears in a web browser, how are the clashes then shown or corrected in the original model, once identified?

Once clashes are identified they can be saved as issues which are assigned to the relevant parties. These issues can then be saved out as BCF (BIM Collaboration Format) which can be then imported into native authoring tools such as ARCHICAD and Revit in order to make the changes.

What is the Building Collaboration Format?

BIM Collaboration Format is an open source standard for exchanging contextual mark up data.

The BIM Collaboration Format is intended to simplify collaboration between different parties working on a model by allowing them to raise issues, provide answers and make comments within an open file format that does not itself contain model elements. That is, it provides a communication capability that is separated from the model itself.

Can you be viewing clashes or change detection in several different models at one time?

Yes, both 3D Diff and Clash support working at a federation level where multiple models from different disciplines have been combined.

At the point at which you find a clash, what is the next procedure for dealing with the clash?

Once clashes are identified they can be saved as issues which are assigned to the relevant parties. These issues can then be saved out as BCF (BIM Collaboration Format) which can be then imported into native authoring tools such as ARCHICAD and Revit in order to make the changes. The updated model is then re-uploaded and the 3D Diff technology is used to compare it with the original version and check the required tasks have been completed and the clashes resolved.

Since BIM and GIS data are very different, are there clashes found at the intersection of the two types of data?

This would be possible only if the user were to import 3D GIS information.

Who is authorized to view the clash data and who makes the ultimate decision as to what to do about it?

Clash data can be viewed bu anyone who it is assigned to as long as they have the correct permissions.

Who has the ultimate decision is not always clear and clash resolution should always be a collaborative process, hence we feel this should take place in the cloud where everyone can collaborate on the same model in real time to give a fully transparent collaboration.

]]>https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/07/05/3d-repo-adds-clash-detection-to-3d-diff/feed/02789Document Management Meets Geo-Location, Real-Time MarkUp and Online Calculatorshttps://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/06/20/document-management-meets-geo-location-real-time-markup-and-online-calculators/
https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/06/20/document-management-meets-geo-location-real-time-markup-and-online-calculators/#respondThu, 21 Jun 2018 00:55:10 +0000https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/?p=2768Searching, finding, collaboration and versioning of documents is a constant challenge for AEC organizations. How to organize and visualize documents and data has resulted in the development of some interesting engineering document management solutions. The following three document management solutions take a different approach to managing, visualizing and collaborating with AEC documents and data that further users’ ability to organize projects digitally.

Bluebeam, Inc., of Pasadena, California, part of the Nemetschek Group, announced recently that it has substantially acquired all of the assets of privately held Project Atlas, LLC.

Construction industry veterans Todd Wynne and Joe Williams founded Project Atlas in 2017. They created a digital mapping engine that uses geo-location instead of traditional folder structures to organize and visualize 2D plans and construction data. According to company materials, this location-based orientation allows design and construction professionals to create and search a seamless digital map of their project that contains plans, people, material, site photos and drone imagery, all within highly detailed, zoomable layers.

“Bluebeam was founded on the idea that powerful AEC solutions should also be easy to use, capable of delivering the right information at the right time while improving the ability of all project partners to collaborate throughout the lifecycle of an entire project,” says Bluebeam CEO Jon Elliott. “We are incredibly excited to add Project Atlas to our portfolio of solutions to continue delivering on this promise. Project Atlas provides users an entirely new way to visually organize and unify location-based documents and data. This location-based methodology dramatically reduces the time it takes to find critical plans and information, empowering owners, architects, engineers, contractors and specialty contractors to access data in an immediately understandable way that will be especially beneficial in the field.”

Bluebeam’s markup and collaboration solutions are intuitive to those in the AEC industry who manage and collaborate on projects digitally.

eQuorum’s ImageSite Engineering CAD Drawing Markup Software is a product that provides markup capabilities in real time, so that multiple users can collaborate on drawing files and documents at the same time along with workflows. Videos and photos can be included. Drawings can be redlined and used in the office, field or production site.
The current version of ImageSite has a redone workflow functionality. Document-centric processes now have full privileges of delegation for approvers and supervisors. All workflows, event monitors, lifecycles and other processes with notifications now report into Our Notifications panel on the Dashboard. This way all notices can be seen in one place with their current status.

Each version of a drawing or document can possess its own markup layers that can be carried forward to each new version, so that all previous additions and comments can be assembled in one version. Some of the workflows that benefit from the markups might be invoice approvals, design releases and Engineering Change Orders.

Change management is another area that requires a rigorous process in engineering just to keep projects on track and manage project costs and schedules. ImageSite’s document lifecycle and workflows can be configured as Engineering Change Requests solutions.

eQuorum has a cloud document management software called Engine-Box that doesn’t require software and resides outside corporate networks. The site is useful for file distribution and collaboration with vendors, contractors and customers. It is valuable to keep on hand in case of in-house system disasters.

ARC Document Solutions has launched an interactive, online value calculator that enables facilities, engineering and maintenance management teams look at usage to date and annual cost savings while assessing the impact of incorporating mobile facilities dashboards into their operations.

]]>https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/06/20/document-management-meets-geo-location-real-time-markup-and-online-calculators/feed/02768Have a Finger on the Pulse: New System Integration Platform from IMAGINiThttps://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/06/08/have-a-finger-on-the-pulse-new-system-integration-platform-from-imaginit/
https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/06/08/have-a-finger-on-the-pulse-new-system-integration-platform-from-imaginit/#respondFri, 08 Jun 2018 13:16:03 +0000https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/?p=2754IMAGINiT Technologies’ new Pulse Platform, available now, is designed to allow engineers and architects to share data between independent software on-premise or cloud products beginning with Autodesk Vault and Autodesk Fusion Lifecycle. Other integrations with other products are forthcoming, according to Matt Mason, software development team manager for IMAGINiT.

“It’s an initial release and a big new area for us,” said Mason. “We’ve always done system integration work, and the work tends to be custom and one-off. This is our attempt to build a platform to make the process of system integration easier, more packaged and less custom.”

Mason adds that previously system integration was primarily 90% custom and required high level software developer or consultant. “We want to see 85% -95% of system integration work as a part of the package. The rest would be what a midlevel consultant could do, set up relationships between systems, map one to the other, etc.”

IMAGINiT Pulse benefits include (according to company materials):

Connectors for Autodesk Vault, Autodesk Fusion Lifecycle, Autodesk BIM 360 Operations and BuildingLink and other systems, allow users to automatically flow information from one software program to another. For example, individuals involved in enterprise resource planning and PLM may need to seamlessly transfer certain data in a specific format from Fusion Lifecycle to Vault.

Real-time visibility of data, through an easy to read dashboard, allows users to understand exactly what information is being transferred, monitor each step in the transfer process and ensure the security and consistency of the data between the two systems.

Configurability gives users control over information being transferred, the systems it is being transferred between and the format in which it is being transferred – all without needing a dedicated development resource on staff. IMAGINiT technical professionals can assist Pulse users to define what data must move, in what direction, the format, and the reaction it triggers upon arrival at the destination software system.

Mason said that the connectors were built to do the heavy lifting of system integration, for working with specific products and getting data in or out of those products and doing updates.

“What’s left in the middle are workflow, rules and data mapping, and that’s modest, but doesn’t require the same level of development expertise that the actual deep integration to each system takes,” said Mason. “We’re trying to build something where we can have these pre-built connectors that do the hardest part of the work and separate the business logic and business rules into a separate part of the product.”

The first three connectors are built for Autodesk products currently since IMAGINiT’s consulting work largely revolves around those products. The fourth one was a non-Autodesk product called BuildingLink.

“We actually had a chance to build a product that made use of BIM 360 operations product with the BuildingLink product,” said Mason. “We expect to do more connectors over time, building our catalog of connectors. We’re expecting to do Bentley ProjectWise and other common integrations that we’ve done in the past such as Microsoft SharePoint.

People using the connectors need to be familiar with the workflows for the products involved. What is in the middle between the two is defining those workflows and some scripting is necessary, such as Microsoft.net scripting, as one product may refer to a part and another may refer to it as an item, etc.

An example, Mason said, are two Autodesk products that don’t communicate very well together such as Autodesk Vault to Fusion Lifecycle. They each have a separate language for how they describe parts and items and both are heavily customized for each customer to define the pieces of information they have. Someone has to build out the script of how to map data from this side to that side. To date, people have set up custom properties on their systems.

“We’re trying to build the connector out so it is visible to the user but not necessarily end user,” said Mason. “The person responsible for the integration wants to see what’s going on and see how integration flows from one side to the other. When you’re doing each one of these as a custom job, there wasn’t much time for polish. We wanted to invest more in the polish and see information flowing back and forth and have a way to visualize and trace. Since we were building it as a platform we could invest more than we could in a typical one off minimalist consulting project.”

In most cases IMAGINiT’s customers have already had their systems custom built for them. “We’re using the expertise of all the integrations we’ve done over the years and tried to build something so the next year’s integration will be much easier.”

Customers just want integration and want it to work, not cost too much. The Pulse Platform offers them “a nicer system that is less risk and less cost than something more custom, because so much of it is packaged,” said Mason.

Pulse will be separate from ongoing development, support and consulting, with annual use fee, including automatic updates for connectors for each company.

There will be one cost for the platform itself, and if you want two systems to connect, get a connector for each system, as each connector has a different amount of and specific complexity.

]]>https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/06/08/have-a-finger-on-the-pulse-new-system-integration-platform-from-imaginit/feed/02754UK BIM Alliance Roadshow and Updates 2018https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/06/01/uk-bim-alliance-roadshow-and-updates-2018/
https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/06/01/uk-bim-alliance-roadshow-and-updates-2018/#respondFri, 01 Jun 2018 21:26:50 +0000https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/?p=2749Coming up is the UK BIM Alliance Roadshow 2018, a tour entitled “Facilitating the Digital Transformation Of the Built Environment.” This event will offer information about how the UK BIM Alliance is making this possible for and with the industry. The news from the Alliance will include buildingSMART news and actual examples and case studies and begins June 21s in Birmingham, with the focus on the use of BIM in Facilities Management.

According to John Eynon, Founding Board Member, UKBIMA now has projects on the go, praise and patrons, some profit, and recognition on the global stage, particularly through their recent merger with buildingSMART UK+I.

A little history: In October of 2016, buildingSMART UK launched the UK BIM Alliance, which was the UK government’s strategy for driving improvements across construction strategy, and by 2017, all public funded projects would be requiring BIM Level 2. This has been the evolution of the UK BIM Alliance.

Dr. Anne Kemp, Atkins, chair of BuildingSMART UK, Chair of ICE’s BIM Action Group, who spoke on the utility topic, “Out of Sight and Out of Mind” at the Bentley Year in Infrastructure Conference in London, asking at that time: “Did all projects transfer to BIM Level 2? Actually, we are a bit further from that in reality. Three million people must be reached. The guys who are being affected by utility strikes are those who we need to reach.”

Her focus was on knowing what’s underground in the way of utilities and using BIM and GIS tools to track outcomes.

“We need to be transforming our utilities through intelligent use of BIM, digital, long overdue collaboration, and common sense,” Kemp said.

Kemp said that the launch of the UK BIM Alliance was going to help their progress at the BuildingSMART UK for feeding data about their buried utilities.

In 2017, the GCS transition of Task Group to L3 (BIM Level) was predicted. There is a need for industry focus and stewardship of Level 2 and to achieve 2020 “Business as usual”. “We need the foundations of BIM Level 2 to be able to realize the ambitions of Level 3,” Kemp explained. “We are providing that industry focus of moving through analog into that digital transformation, through 3D modeling and integrated real time modeling. We are working at the structured controlled data in BIM Level 2. We’ve also got to control that uncontrolled dirty data, and how do we do that?”

There is a need to think about outcomes rather than just output, said Kemp, and not just discussing 2D drawings or data (or 3D). How does data need to be delivered in order for us to do our jobs?

“We have a convergence of what is needed with BIM, and that’s where the UK BIM Alliance comes in,” said Kemp. “BIM for rail, water, survey, hospitals, has a lot of interest around this area. The UK BIM Alliance grew out of government initiatives, and we are moving to BIM level 3. We need industry to step up and demonstrate BIM Level 2.”

The initiative really had to embrace the entire industry. By setting the mandate that they must achieve BIM Level 2 by 2020, they are challenging themselves. They are being innovative and inclusive and transparent.

“We target people who need to know about this stuff,” said Kemp. “BIM Level 2 has been defined. Bimlevel2.org is available and we’re here to help industry implement.”

There is BIM for infrastructure and there needs to be BIM for utilities.

What can we do from a buried utilities point of view?

What is complementary for ISOs and smart cities is working on an evolving landscape. The UK BIM Alliance is developing a taskforce on convergence with smart cities.

“Disruptive technology changes the face of industries, but we are also in an age of disruptive data,” Kemp concluded. “You have to have your people work through, understand and tailor themselves to the new processes.”

COBie to IFC processes

The BuildingSMART chair UK chapter is supporting the BIM Level 2

BIM enabled through to operations and maintenance

Not just about design and construction

TOTEX and total expenditure instead of operational expenditure.

The government is looking at procurement methods. The background to BIM is asset management.

Key decisions have to be made through the life of a project. You also have projects running simultaneously at different stages, so you need to be sure you have the right information, and data fed into a system users can trust.

She is looking forward to better information and management through BIM.

Autodesk BIM 360 Docs is designed to help government clients comply with the BIM Level 2 mandate in the UK. Process described here:

The Product Data Working Group Alliance Product Data Working Group which is consulting on the state of the nation on product data has published two interim reports.Meeting 1 Interim Report
Meeting 2 Interim Report
Join the conversation on the dedicated #product_data slack channel or email us.

BIMovation – Faro are hosting an event on June 5th where Anne Kemp, UKBIMAlliance Chair will be speaking – register here

Facilitating the digital transformation of the Built Environment– The first of our roadshow events takes place in Birmingham on June 21st where John Eynon will be presenting the latest news alongside other guest speakers. Register here

CSIC Distinguished Lecture – Anne Kemp is delivering the distinguished lecture on June 29 where she takes A glimpse into the future….By considering the past. The challenges, the opportunities – and our consciences. Register here

GDPR

The UK BIM Alliance has updated their privacy policy inline with the new GDPR regulations. Please visit this page for more information.

ARCHICAD 22 is focused on modeling, information management and performance. Some of those include:

Smooth and responsive navigation ensured for all model views.

Major performance enhancements noticeable when panning and zooming

Generation of complex element fills done by GPU acceleration

ARCHICAD balances calculation tasks so all cores finish their tasks at the same time.

An improved navigation caching algorithm

High resolutions support on Windows allows for sharper display of details.

Eniko Pauko, GRAPHISOFT Senior BIM Consultant, has worked in GRAPHISOFT headquarters for more than 15 years. She is a licensed architect with her own design company as well as a software developer. She spoke to AECCafe Voice about some of the new features of ARCHICAD 22.

The outside and even inside of the building is the façade. “We have to support the design process of the façade better so we use the curtain wall, this year using the curtain wall tool,” said Pauko.

While ARCHICAD has had a curtain wall tool in the past, it was more of a modeling tool. Now the new curtain wall tool has graphical pattern creation capabilities. You may also define an empty scheme grid and with no frames and panels and use that as a reference. The best place for creating graphical patterns is either in 3D viewpoint or section or 3D viewpoint that is parallel to the curtain wall. In a curtain wall, all frames must be connected at both ends to another frame. During pattern creation, temporary frames are created and displayed as pink lines. These are automatically removed once the pattern creation is done. You may create an area larger than the pattern wall.

You can also create panels between frames. Select the panel class to be used, make sure to place any panel within a pattern box. Once the pattern is done, click the pattern I icon that will display the pattern box. By modifying the size and location of the pattern box, you can set the size of the pattern box.

ARCHICAD will display the pattern box as ghost lines so you can have a good idea of how the pattern will look.

Once the pattern is finished, it will be distributed along the whole geometry of the curtain wall. Pauko said they have a more interactive interface so the basics of the curtain wall tool has not changed, but there is a big difference between the past version and current version. So, you could see what you set up in menu but it wasn’t interactive.

“Now I can set up elements and change outside, and add diagonal frames, rearrange the building structure,” Pauko said. “I can create something in my setting. Even if it isn’t the exact sizes we can do fine tuning, we have other options, so with one click, I have three divisions on my curtain wall. I want the exact number of divisions. You can do as many iterations as necessary, you can achieve a much more fine-tuned version of the same thing. It operates with a lot more elements.”

Model View Options

The Model View option allows for a separate curtain wall, and then you can decide what can be visible. :I can also reach the level of detail and the picture also shows level of detail automatically so I can see how they’re going to behave,” said Pauko.

ARCHICAD 22 has many variations of the curtain wall and allows for many sub-elements that follow the form of the curtain wall. Sub-elements adapt to geometry and frames and immediately fill the available holes.

ARCHICAD 22 has improved quality and precision when exporting building components and material information using IFC 2×3 and IFC 4 standards from the ARCHICAD model.

BIM

BIM components can be created in the model. There are multiple ways of creating BIM components in the model, and there are many surrounding structures and the components have to adapt to the situation. So, in practice these profiles are very hard to standardize.

“We somewhat supported such situations, but it was a separate practice,” said Pauko. “We had the parametric profile that could cover any situation, but they weren’t geometric so they couldn’t follow surrounding structures and what they required.

“We implemented parametric profile in ARCHICAD. Japan normally designs building where they keep in mind structures, and design buildings in one to one scale, so they document everything they have such as the load bearing structure, then they have the finishes based on tile size, there is a gap here, etc. They define a separate custom profile, and this is the size and shape of the gap, so they end up with different variations of the same things.”

The enhanced Profile Editor makes it easy to create intelligent profiles for columns, beams and walls and control the shapes and sizes of their cross sections via BIM parameters. The brand-new Expression Defined Properties vastly improve ARCHICAD’s capabilities to manage the “I” in BIM. GRAPHISOFT’s patent pending Machine Learning (ML) algorithm adjusts 2D navigation to each project’s content and results in a very smooth and responsive navigation.

ARCHICAD 22 also includes Maxon’s latest (R19) CineRender engine, providing stereoscopic or 360° spherical renderings; a better Teamwork experience due to faster element reservation; and improved quality and precision when exporting building component information from composite skins and complex profiles – using OPEN BIM standards.

“If the structural engineer asks for bigger profile or I need to change the values here, and they will immediately update, and all the surrounding structures are adjusted automatically,” said Pauko. “I can do this also from the dialog box and can restore designers, can return to the people to say I want to do things, and have full control of the elements of the environment.”

You can have as many building materials as you like without having to define additional profiles. All rules and profiles of bolts or models can be created with one single profile.

Information Management

In five years, there have been huge improvements in ARCHICAD, said Pauko. “Today the effort depends on how we can share the information. There are two big challenges – the balance between the model site and the metadata. Data is good, only if it’s non-structured, then its dumb data. We need intelligence to produce data that is useful. I need to calculate the number of tiles that I need to use to cover the floor in each room. We don’t do operations in a schedule, we do it on an element level, with a property manager. This is where data and metadata are stored. What are sizes of the tiles, stored there, import intelligence, calculate the area that can be covered by one box. All properties are available in the model to select. ARCHICAD gives you the entire feedback, and all you have to do is substitute space holder values with values from the project. You can save this information in many different formats. You can create a schedule. You can illustrate a schedule and can change any part of the schedule. All of the values will be automatically updated.”

In today’s architectural world, it’s necessary to manage bigger models with more complex details than ever before. More intelligence in models has been developed. Pauko said that this year, the projected view, elevation, viewing, panning are experiences their users use a lot in 2D operations.

The new Façade Design workflow uses 100 percent BIM and covers the entire design workflow from concept through design development to documentation supporting local standards – using traditional and algorithmic workflows.

]]>https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/05/23/graphisoft-archicad-22-focuses-on-modeling-performance-and-information-management/feed/02742Different Interfaces for Different Folks in TurboCAD 2018https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/05/18/different-interfaces-for-different-folks-in-turbocad-2018/
https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/2018/05/18/different-interfaces-for-different-folks-in-turbocad-2018/#respondFri, 18 May 2018 19:58:16 +0000https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/aeccafevoice/?p=2737Robert Berry IMSI Design, spoke with AECCafe Voice about the newly released TurboCAD 2018 line of products, including Pro Platinum, Expert, Deluxe and Designer versions for Windows® desktop PCs.

“The main difference between our flagship product for $150, Deluxe that contains surface modeling and the Professional and Expert versions is that the latter versions contain the ACIS solid modeler,” said Berry. “That’s an expensive library and also our Expert version has an AutoCAD command line. That’s one of the things about this new version 2018. We have a different interface depending upon what type of user you are. This ribbon interface is for people who are familiar with ribbon interfaces like for Word. We also do have the ability to customize these things and change layout.”

IMSI is unusual in that it has a lot of interfaces and workspaces. The LT interface is the AutoCAD LT interface, and it can switch from the ribbon to the LT interface, and it will quickly change the layout. IMSI has the command line in the product, so you can draw lines and it has AutoCAD dynamic input in the Expert and Professional version.

Berry has been involved with TurboCAD for two decades, since he created the interface in South Africa. The CAD alias interface is part of the original product “It’s got all the commands in the CAD interface,” he said. “Choose any of the interfaces with your connection tools and drawing tools. On the right-hand side of the screen, what I really like is it has all the AutoCAD aliases in it. Look at keyboard shortcuts and CTRL BOX is going to run amok. With this technology, we don’t hold our control key down for short cuts, we press and release the control key and then we type in whatever the shortcut is. So, CTRL BOX starts drawing the box.

“If you want to go to the box, so CTRL B2 gets me to the b circle or C3 gets me drawing a 3-point circle. It’s very quick and it has a command line per se. at the bottom of the screen, hit CTRL RECT and then I’m drawing a rectangle. Or if I want to draw a poly line CTRL PL then I’m drawing one. Or I want to draw a single line CTRL SL.

With the single-entry keyboard element, if I want to snap to a circle I can just move to the center of the circle and press C. AutoCAD uses are familiar with typing in CEN for center. So, then I would come in here and press CTRL CEN and it is a single point snap and it will snap only to the center of a circle. Likewise, the V key, in TurboCAD language V is for vertex, but in AutoCAD language its CTRL END and then I can snap to the end of something.”

Every single command in the product has these shortcuts. All commands are come in AutoCAD aliases and they are also TurboCAD commands. They are available in all the TurboCAD variations.

The 2-key keyboard shortcuts that were available in GenericCAD are in TurboCAD now.

If you have a complicated drawing and want to work with an isolated object or hide parts of it, you can use CTRL H for hatch objects, and then end isolation when finished.

The ability to search for different elements, and commands such as the slide command where you can drag elements onto a toolbar are very useful.

Now there is the ability to use PDF as a trace player with improved ability, to set up a time delay, that allows you to choose page of PDF you want to bring in. It becomes a part of the drawing, a group of graphics that you can explode it and break it down into individual entities. It also allows editing and manipulation of PDF files far better than in the past. You can do multiple pages also.

The new Snap mode will allow a mid-point snap option that will allow you to snap between two points. A two-point snap command and will find the middle of it.

With the new 3D elements, you can turn them into 2D elements.

With the drafting palette, you can select 2D images. You can choose the 3D images and insert them into the drawing, so it’s very easy to create a top, left and side view, and selections line up and insert it as 2D elements into the drawing.

Berry said that when he was at AutoCAD, he was concerned about elements crossing in the Pinpoint Hatch feature. In TurboCAD 2018, the pinpoint hatch has been improved. “In some situations, you’ll have a gap, you measure the gap, and you can see gaps of 33-34 inches so you key in CTRL PPH. If I make gap bigger than what it is, now I click in the space and it will still find and do a pinpoint hatch in here and should automatically fill this up.”

Quicktool for surfaces in the past was only for the ACIS solid modeler. “Now, if you have a flat 2D sheet you can thicken it easily, make it into a 3D object, and can measure on 3D values as well,” said Berry.

All the primary features of IMSI TurboCAD 2018 are outlined in the following company materials:

Usability & Interface

New and Improved Interface Options– In addition to the new Ribbon option, the popular CADCourse interface has been updated.

Keyboard Shortcuts– Similar to the functionality found in other CAD products, users now have the ability to set up keyboard short cuts that consist of either two or more keystrokes to quickly invoke any TurboCAD command. These keystrokes are sequential and do not need to be a keyboard combination.

Isolate and Hide Objects– This terrific new feature allows users to take a complex drawing and to quickly reduce its complexity by allowing them to select certain entities and to isolate them independent of layers or groups. Users also have the choice of hiding objects so that you can focus only on the entities that are important during the editing procedure.

Search Option for Locating UI Features– This new feature allows users to quickly search for particular commands within the Customize dialog, allowing the user to quickly identify either the command itself or its keyboard shortcut. With this, users can easily customize their interface to suit their own needs by dragging the icon onto a familiar toolbar or by creating a new customized keyboard shortcut commands

2D Drafting and Editing

PDF Underlay Improvement– A new tool “PDF underlay to Objects” has been implemented. It gives the ability to convert an Underlay into an editable object.

Snap Between Two Points– New text editor interface with new formatting features and new options including numbered lists, bulleted lists, and multi-column support.

Thick Profile Tool– Scale a set of objects to a specific size by using two reference points.

Flatten Tool– Use the Flatten tool for 3D polylines and 3D splines to make them flat on the work plane.

3D Drawing, Modeling, and Editing

New Quick Pull for Surfaces– No longer is this handy tool limited to ACIS, solid models, it can pull or push a closed 2D area of a 3D object (TC Surface).

Sheet Thicken Capability– Used in Shelling, this tool allows you to turn 2D entities, either closed or open, into flat 2D sheets and then to give them a 3D thickness by using the thicken feature of Shell tool. Further, it is possible to thicken the sheet in two directions by adjusting settings on the inspector.

Improved Coordinate Measurements– In prior versions of TurboCAD, the Measure Coordinates of the Point tool could only measure the X and Y values Now, the Measure Coordinates tool behaves more like a 3D tool in that will show the 3D coordinate of the World coordinate system independent of the active user coordinate system.

Architectural

Add Roof by Walls Improvement– Previously, this tool could create only one roof object. Now, multiple objects may be created.

Expanded Support for IFC Object Types– Over 40 different object types are now supported for IFC Import to or Export from TurboCAD.

BIM Tool Enhancements– Edit property sets imported from IFC files, and define any TurboCAD entity as the corresponding desired IFC entity and establish the appropriate property set export to IFC.

Relative Angle fields for Wall and Polyline update– While drawing walls or polylines, you can now choose to enter an Angle (which is absolute in relation to the world coordinates) or a Relative Angle which is the angle from the immediately previous segment (arc or line).

Photorealistic Rendering and Visualization

Improved LightWorks Rendering– LightWorks is once again the default photorealistic rendering engine used in TurboCAD. Improvements have been made to Render Styles, the Render and GI Controllers, Environments, and several other facets to rendering controls.

File Support / Interoperability

Import 2D PDF Page as a Vector Page– 2D Vector PDF files can now be directly imported into TurboCAD as a vector page. The file can be imported as either a TurboCAD Object or Group of Graphics.

New 3MF file Export– for manufacturing.

3DS, STEP, Rhino and U3D improvements– For Import and Export.

Availability and Pricing

TurboCAD Pro Platinum 2017 is now available for $1,499.99 USD for a full, permanent license, $499.99/year for an annual subscription, TurboCAD Expert for $499.99, TurboCAD Deluxe for $149.99, and TurboCAD Designer for $49.99.